Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1887-06-22
SPANISH EXPLORER.
tn First Esrepsan to Lead Through
Texas.

Ths First Ksropean to Lead Through
Toxss.
fort Worth Gasctte.l
The first European to make extern
| sive explorations in Texas was Alvar
Nurez, who has left a record of his
w~anderings which appeared in Spain
In 1887, and which has been used to
advantage by II. b. Bancroft in his
"~IIistory of the North Mexican States
and Texas" He was one of the sur
| vivors OF a party of S~paniards number
ing 240 men, besides the officers, who
for six weeks sailed in a frail craft,
tempest-tOssed and suffering terribly
from thirst, hunger. exposure and at
tacks from warlike Indians, until early
in November. 1887, they finally strand
ed on an island off the coast of Texas.
Emaciated and weak, tho naked SUR
yivOrs were cast up by the waves to
fall into the hands of the savages.
A few of the strongest survivors
were sent to the main land by their
fellows with orders to seek help from
the nearest Spaniards. The remainder
were soon reduced from eighty to
fifteen by famine and pcstileDce, and
those few were enslaved by the Indians
and Don became scattered from one
another. Alvar Nurez remained on
the island a captive for more than a
year, and was forced by his harsh mas
tiers to dig roots as food from under
the water. After a time, however, he
was allowed greater liberty and bet
tered his condition by trading with
the natives on the mainland, travelling,
naked as he was, owe Texas for many
leagues of territory, and exchanging
shells and various articles used on the
coast for skins and other inland pro-
ducts. Thus, for six years, he invOl-
UNFAIRLY made his home at Malhado
Island, for thus he named the place of
his misfortune.
After these years of captivity he
finally succeeded in escaping from his
captors with Oviedo, the only white
survivor remaining on the island. He
went the coast, passing four large
rivers, and finally entered bay, which
he supposed was the Espiritu Santo,
discovered in 1919. lie soon fell in
with three or four persons belonging
to the original party. and these four
are the only Ones who were known to
have survived Of the 300 that had
sailed from Florida.
Alvar Nurez and his party, having
learned through terrible h%ardships to
accommodate themselves to life in the
wilderness, made the first extensive ex-
plOrati0ns i'm Texas and in the adjOin-
ing country that is known to have been
made by Europeans. His account of
their wanderings vas republished a
number of times in Spain, under a var
iety Of titles, and was also translated
into Italian, French and England.
Another narrative EXISTS in the report
given by the party to the audiencia i'm
Mexico, in 1886. Although both state
ments bear the evident imprint of the
fullest good faith. they were written
from memory and contain many mac
cnracies. They agree in essentials,
however, in regard to the adventures
Of the party, but there is a wide differ
ence in dates, directions and distances.
These reports are fragmentary and
ever contradictory, but they throw a
priceless light OF the condition of
Texas then.
AS the Spaniards do not speak of
eioocIiiS tiiU VufSSiooippi plNcT, dS tIley
certainly would had they noticed it,
Malhado Island must, therefore, have
been to the westward Of the steam.
Their location of the Bay of Espiritu
SantO is fixed by certain great sand
hills, which OviedO mentions as prom
inent landmarks, and ut the present
day the United States coast survey
speaks Of the sand mound as rising
from an almost level prairie region at
the bay, which now bears the name of
Espiritu Santo. This from the internal
evidence of those early narratives
shows that either this bay or San An
tonic has the best claim of being the
initial point from which explorations
began into the Texan Territory. The
journey of these pioneer explorers be-
gan in the summer of 1885, when
Nurez and Oviedo took advantage Of
their masters annual visit to the in
terror to procure a supply of prickly
pears for food, to make their escape.